A key factor in the success of your international expansion is the location of your warehouse and how you manage it.
Importing goods into multiple countries is a complex and challenging task. It requires understanding and complying with different laws, bureaucracies, and customs regulations. Often, this means that a shipment must be prepared in a specific way for import into a particular country. And that requires the experience of a team of experts.
This is where companies like Aerodoc come in, providing Import of Record (IOR) services to help clients expand their global business into countries where they do not have a legal presence.
In this way, a company that offers import of records services will solve most of your logistics problems, but not all of them. This is where Aerodoc’s difference lies.
Carolina Muller, VP of Business Development at Aerodoc, explains that in cases of multi-country projects, where the client needs to import in several countries, it is important to think in advance about the location of the warehouse. A strategic logistics hub is sometimes essential to reduce operating costs.
Aerodoc is one of the few IOR companies offering full service, including warehousing. The company provides global warehousing and compliance services that help companies expand their reach without incurring large capital and infrastructure investment costs. For this reason, companies that need to import into multiple countries and warehousing services in strategic geography choose Aerodoc to provide a customized and comprehensive one-stop-shop solution.
This means that a single supplier (Aerodoc) will be responsible for storing, receiving and managing your goods, acting as a consolidation hub to prepare the cargo according to the customer’s specifications, and taking care of the entire import process in each country.
The importance of a one-stop solution
Muller notes that some products may have specific requirements for import into certain countries. “If the customer has their products in our warehouse and we handle their freight, we can do the free compliance of the product in the warehouse and ship it to the right destination,” she adds.
“For example, in Argentina, there are certain products that require electrical safety or cannot be imported at source. So when we receive the product in our warehouse, the team knows that if that product goes to Argentina, the source will be disconnected and one will be purchased locally,” she says.
This avoids import issues with customs, delays, blocked goods, penalties and additional costs. This is why it is important to have an integrated supplier like Aerodoc, who takes care of both the warehousing process and the import at the destination.
A consolidation node
Muller explains the advantages that Aerodoc offers in these cases. “The advantage that the customer can get by storing the products in our warehouse is that we can do the consolidations in the way they need for the different countries,” the VP introduces. “For example, the customer can buy 1000 units in China and distribute them to 7 countries. How? We consolidate all the units in our warehouse and import them according to the customer’s order and needs in the different countries,” she continues.
Dan Zonnenschein, COO at Aerodoc, explains that in cases where a company needs to import to multiple countries, it is determined whether (and where) a warehousing service is needed based on where the goods are coming from, where they are going, and the nature of the project.
“For example, to reach Latin America and the Caribbean, Miami works as a natural hub because of its proximity and transportation options, among other reasons,” says the COO.
“We are currently working on a multi-country, multi-region project, so we are evaluating whether it makes sense to have regional hubs in the Americas, Europe and Asia, or just one hub. In this case, the goods originate in Taiwan and we are analyzing the most efficient solution,” he explains. In any case, Zonnenschein emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but that Aerodoc designs the solution based on the needs of each customer and project.
Tech and Broadcasting Industry
Muller points out that one of the industries that benefit from Aerodoc’s comprehensive service is the broadcast industry. “Our customers send us the number of decoders they buy in bulk, we store them in our warehouse, and depending on where they sell their services, we ship and import them to the different countries they need,” she adds.
Something similar happens with technology resellers. Many companies ship or sell technology solutions that they previously had to purchase from multiple suppliers. In these cases, Aerodoc acts as a consolidation center for these purchases.
Customers provide Aerodoc with their purchase orders, tracking numbers, and the date the shipment will be ready. It then helps them track those shipments or coordinate pickups when each one is ready.
It can also intervene in other ways. “Sometimes customers ask us to repackage shipments according to the needs of each delivery point,” explains Estefania Sisatzky, EVP of OPS & Customer Service at Aerodoc.
To learn more about Aerodoc’s IOR and warehousing services, here you can learn more. You can also contact our team of experts for more information.
